The general regulation on data protection (RGPD) would it have missed its target ? While this text, which entered into force on 25 may in Europe, claimed to offer a better protection of citizens in the face of the exploitation of their personal data, it seems, for the moment, paradoxically, have reinforced the hegemony of Google. This is what suggests a study conducted by Cliqz and Ghostery, two companies offering tools to protect their privacy online, published on 10 October.
In reaching this conclusion, the authors have counted the number of cookies present on the Web pages of the 2 000 most visited sites in Europe and the United States, before and after the entry into force of the RGPD. Especially popular with players of online advertising, these tools allow them to accumulate, in any discretion, the quantity of information on each user (IP address, browsing history, etc.) to then provide targeted advertisements, the more income-generating.
The RGPD has attempted to control such practices, by requiring websites to inform their visitors of the use made of their data, for what purpose and by whom. Normally, the possibility should be given to refuse easily this capture of data… which is not always the case.
A reading of the figures of the study, the RGPD seems to have at least partly reached its goal. While, on the sample of sites observed, the average number of cookies per page has increased from 8.9 % in the United States between April and July, it is down 3.4% on the same period in Europe. The phenomenon is even more pronounced on the news sites (-7,5 % 12.4 tracers per page on average), and e-commerce (– 6,94 %). Good news, you are so (a little less) being monitored.
Financial advantage for the big players
Yes but by who ? The study’s authors compared the situation of the different actors of the digital advertising…